The first international symposium on the Malay musical arts of the Riau Islands (also know as Kepri) to be held in Australia has been deemed a success. The Symposium was Hosted by Monash University and attracted more than 100 people to the first afternoon of papers and to the launch of the accompanying exhibition, which included performances of live music and theatre of the Riau Islands.

The Kepri Province was founded in 2004 and the secrets of its artistic culture are only now beginning to be exposed to the world. It is an archipelago in Indonesia, located east of Sumatra along with two islands south of Singapore.

Symposium convenor Professor Margaret Kartomi from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music said the symposium and exhibition had been a great success.

“We had 22 world experts on the music, body movement and drama of the Riau Islands from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Denmark, United Kingdom, USA, Singapore and Australia presenting cutting-edge papers on their research” said Professor Kartomi. “It was a wonderful response to the first ever symposium that looked at the artistic culture of this part of Indonesia.”

The keynote speaker, Professor Leonard Andaya from the University of Hawaii, presented results of his latest research on the Southern Malay World, of which the Riau Islands Province is part.

Professor Kartomi said a highlight of the symposium and exhibition were the live performances, including the troupe of Riau Island makyong theatre actor-dancers and musicians performing a theatrical episode and a brilliant biola (violin) player who accompanied a female singer’s performance of the famous poem Gurindam Duabelas written in the 1850s by Riau Islands poet Raja Ali Haji.

Professor Kartomi said the accompanying exhibition, which was opened by Indonesian Consul-General Dewi Savitri Wahab, added to the success of the symposium.

“The beauty and distinctiveness of the arts of Java and Bali are well-known around the world, however, Indonesia’s equally beautiful and unique Malay arts from the cradle of Malay-Indonesian civilisation – the Riau Islands/Kepulauan Riau – are yet to be discovered outside the province,” she said.

The curator of the Exhibition of Malay Performing Arts, Bronia Kornhauser, said the exhibition held 250 Malay performing arts objects, including jewellery, costumes, textiles, musical instruments, rare books from the Monash Library, and poster-size colour field photos from Indonesia’s Malay world.

“The exhibition, which was co-presented with the Museum of Indonesian Arts, and its 60-page illustrated catalogue, covered several regions of Indonesia’s Malay world, including coastal Sumatra, South Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, Riau Islands, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and North-coastal Sulawesi,” Mrs Kornhauser said. “We also included items from the John Noble Bequest to the Music Archive of Monash University.”

The double event was the first to be presented in the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music’s Jubilee year in 2015.

Open letter from Australian academics to PM: Closure of Manus Island and Nauru

An open letter calling for the immediate closure of Manus Island and Nauru offshore immigration detention centres addressed to Prime Minister Tony Abbot has garnered quite a buzz in the media, academic circles and a mention by Senator Christine Milne in parliament recently. Arguing in support of refugee rights, the letter advocates that offshore detention practices and claims determinations within Australia are fundamentally flawed. This letter demands that the Australia step up to its international legal obligations under the International Refugee Convention.

Written by academics for academics to sign, the letter has garnered signatures from over 1,278 academics representing all Australian universities to date. A number of academics from the Border Crossing Observatory have signed this letter in support.

Opening the topic of discussion with this exciting progress at the recent Academics and Advocates for Refugees meeting, set the tone for the lively and productive discussions which followed. Attended by a number of dedicated academics from several Melbourne universities and advocates from prominent local organisations, and led by Professor Philomena Murray who spearheaded the Letter from Academics to the Prime Minister, topics included the upcoming 13th of April Walk for Justice of Refugees, ideas for policy briefs on refugee and asylum seeker issues, and setting up an online public face of the group.